MANTI, UTAH 

 A street alter the flood ol August 29, 1901 



could be done to protect the forests in 

 the mountains from fire and spohation. 



For several years previous to their 

 coming-, the little city of Manti had been 

 devastated by floods that came rolling 

 down the canyon from the mountains 

 about them. These floods swept away 

 whole farms, spread sand and silt over 

 acres of fine farming lands, and de- 

 i:)Osited in the streets great masses of 

 rocks and boulders. Families were 

 ruined, and the value of property greatly 

 depreciated. Many, believing the city 

 doomed, moved away. The citizens 

 fought these floods to the best of their 

 ability and built huge dykes above the 

 city in hopes they would turn the waters 

 and keep them in the bed of the stream. 



But all their work was in vain, for 

 the dykes were swept away as are the 

 sand forts built by the children on the 

 seashore. Then they set about remedy- 

 ing the matter by looking for the cause 

 ()f the floods. It was not a question of 

 timber cutting, for while some timber 

 had been cut from about the heads of 

 the canyons, not enough had been taken 

 to account for the floods. 



The older settlers knew that when 

 they first came to Manti, the hills and 

 mountains round about were covered 

 with a dense growth of grass, weeds, 

 and shrubbery. Added to this there was 

 a deep cover of humus, composed for 

 the most part of decayed leaves, pine 

 needles, and such matter. Into this 

 cover the snows of winter and the rains 

 of summer had soaked, to find their 

 way, slowly and without erosive action, 

 to the valleys below. 



Then came the herds of sheep and 

 cattle, and the hills were swept bare. 

 The snow and rain fell upon a soil 

 trampled by the stock until it was packed 

 so hard that the water ran off it as 

 from a roof. The ground cover, which 

 once held tlie waters, was gone. And 

 what the stock didn't do to make this 

 destruction complete the fires did. 



Then followed the floods. 



Every one agreed as to the cause ; the 

 remedy was simple. They asked the 

 government to set aside the mountains 

 about them for a national forest and, 

 when that was done, to prohibit the 

 grazing- of all stock upon the Manti 

 watershed. 



533 



